Damage Control
by xForeverDazzledx
Summary: Sonny and Chad get into another heated argument. So heated they don't even realize they're outside, in public. When the paparazzi catches their battle on tape, there's only one way to save their reputations and their shows: damage control. ONESHOT Channy


**A/N: ****So this was actually a story I got to write for school. My teacher gave us a file folder and we had to make a collage on the front that we then had to write about. I already had an idea, so I just covered mine with pictures of Sonny With A Chance. As of right now, this is a Oneshot. I was planning on making it longer, though it was already 11 pages in length and if I continued it would have doubled in length (the most I've handed in for a creative writing story is 15 pages :D). I may decide to write the second half in the future though. But for now, enjoy the story!!**

Damage Control

"You're such a jerk!" I spat. I was arguing with Chad. Again. He had been making fun of my show. Again.

You see, me and Chad are both actors. He plays MacKenzie on the drama "MacKenzie Falls" while I play a variety of wacky characters in different sketches on the show "So Random". Our shows are both filmed on the same lot, but our casts are mutual enemies. They tell us a comedy show isn't a real show. We tell them that a drama isn't entertaining. And it goes on it on…

"Better a jerk than a fake," he shot back. I gasped. Chad frequently told us we that we were not real actors and I never let it get to me. But he has never called us fake before. And it kind of hurt.

I could feel my face turning red with anger. I wouldn't be surprised if there was steam coming out of my ears. I desperately wanted to slap that pretty face of his and wipe off the smirk he wore, but I kept my cool. I was better than that. I couldn't let him get to me. So I simply muttered, "I hate you," through gritted teeth, then spun on my heel to walk away.

I vaguely heard him shout, "Love you too!" sarcastically as I stormed through the parking lot.

I was about ten paces away from my building when I was blinded by a flash of light. I just kept walking, not wanting to bother with the paparazzi.

But then the man with the camera shouted something I wasn't expecting, "You and Chad are enemies, huh? I thought you were best friends."

I froze. No one was supposed to know about our on-going feud, just the production company, who wouldn't dare to tell anyone. But he had no proof, right? A picture couldn't prove we were fighting. That's when I noticed he had to cameras dangling around his neck. There was the one that he had just used to take my picture and another one that was shaped differently. It was a video camera. He had filmed our fight and we hadn't even noticed.

I was screwed.

I quickly ran into the building before he could get any more information. I didn't want to face the cameras, mocking me, threatening to ruin my reputation. Not that it mattered now. The damage had been done. There was no turning back.

My reputation was doomed.

* * * *

I walked into my dressing room trying to keep a straight face. I didn't want anyone to know that I probably just lost enough viewers to get out show kicked off the air. Either that or me. Whatever happened, though, they weren't options I wanted to deal with at the moment.

I walked over to my vanity and pretended to fix my hair. Apparently my act wasn't working, because Tawni – the cast member I share a dressing room with – came up to me.

"What's up with you?" she asked,

"Nothing," I lied, speaking too quickly.

"Something's up. You've been here for over two minutes and haven't said something stupid and perky or gone off telling some story I really don't care about. Tell me the truth."

I sighed. She knew me too well.

"I think the paparazzi just caught me doing something that's going to ruin my reputation."

It was silent for a moment, as if she were waiting for me to say something else. Then she burst out laughing.

"What did you do?" she asked, breathless, "Fall over? Scratch your nose so it looks like your picking it? That'll be there and gone in a week at the most!" She continued her fit of hysterics.

"Actually, they videotaped me arguing with Chad. And it was a bad argument, too." Her laughing stopped abruptly.

"So the public knows about our feuding with the Falls?" You could hear the nervousness in her voice.

"Well, they know that there is something up with me and Chad."

Tawni let out a dramatic groan and sunk into her pink director's chair labeled with her name in silver. "Why must you do this, Sonny?" she cried, "When your reputation goes down, the whole show's goes down! The public hates celebrity feuds!"

"Well look on the bright side." She shot me a look of confusion. "At least MacKenzie Falls will lose viewers, too," I offered, smiling sheepishly.

"It's not so much a victory when we're going down, too," she scoffed.

Suddenly Zora – my crazy 11 year old cast mate – barged in showing off her cell phone.

"This just in!" she shouted louder than necessary, "Sonny Munroe and Chad Dylan Cooper are the latest celebrities in a feud!"

My jaw dropped. "That happened ten minutes ago!" I cried.

She flipped her phone shut with a 'snap!' "Word travels fast in this town." She left before I could say anything else.

Tawni stood up then, flipping her blonde hair behind her shoulder. "Fix this or I'm getting Marshall to kick you off the show." With a stamp of her pedicured foot, she followed Zora out the door.

I sighed and headed out the door knowing there was only one person I could go to now.

* * * *

"What are you doing here?" Chad asked after nearly falling off his seat at the sight of me. I hadn't bothered knocking before storming into his dressing room. I didn't want to go through the unnecessary discussion where he told me to go away and then I beg him to let me and he still refuses. I was getting in there no matter what he said.

"Have you checked any celebrity gossip site lately?" I asked back.

"I only read stuff about myself," he explained. I rolled my eyes. In Chad Dylan Cooper's world, he was the king, Hollywood was his kingdom, and everyone else was a mere peasant. They didn't matter to him.

"Well start reading." I pulled up the website Zora had shown me on my phone and handed it to him.

He eyed it curiously and took it. I watched his expression change from pleased to angry as he read the article. Then I heard our voices ringing out as he watched the video.

"Who did this?!" he yelled, throwing my phone to the ground.

I went to retrieve it instead of answering.

"No one films Chad Dylan Cooper without contacting my manager!"

I laughed, "Mr. Hollywood Heartthrob has never been bugged by the paparazzi?"

A smirk grew upon his face, "You think I'm a heartthrob?" He cocked up one eyebrow.

I could feel a fire like heat prickling my cheeks. "No!" I shouted quickly, "Just answer the question!"

"Well there was that one time with the puppies…," he trailed off, "But that was easy to fix! I've never had bad press with another person!"

"Well do you know how to fix it?"

He took a deep breath and ran his hand through his hair. "We do damage control."

"What?" I knew I had heard the phrase before, but I couldn't really remember what it meant.

"We have to go out in public and pretend to be the best of friends for a day. Two days is probably better, but that's pushing it," he explained.

"Oh." Well this was great! Chad Dylan Cooper wasn't really the person I wanted to spend my free time with. And I had to be nice to him! Oh the joy.

"What are you doing tomorrow morning?" he asked.

"Nothing," I sighed. I knew where this was going.

"I'll pick you up at nine. We'll get coffee or something and figure out if there's anything else we need to do." The tone of his voice showed he wasn't so thrilled about this either. "Hopefully someone will be there to take a few pictures and we'll be done."

"Fine," I stated.

"Now go. I've got a scene to shoot in two minutes."

I left immediately, not wanting to be in his presence any longer.

* * * *

I woke up the next morning at eight o'clock sharp to get ready. The sun was shining and the sky was a clear blue dotted with puffy white clouds. It was the perfect day to be outside. The perfect day to fool the paparazzi.

I went through my normal routine, showering, brushing my teeth, and washing my face. I threw on a pair of skinny jeans and a faded T-shirt, and let my brown locks hang wavy and loose as they always did.

Five minutes later, Chad was at my door.

"Ready to go?"

"Yup," I replied.

As we walked to his car, I let my eyes adjust to his new outfit. I was so used to seeing him in his clean-cut school uniform he wore for his show. Today he wore a pair of jeans and a long sleeve T-shirt. It's not that he looked bad, it's just that I'd never seen him in normal clothes.

When we got to the car, I was surprised to see him open up the passenger door for me. Apparently the act was already starting. I smiled gratefully and slid in. He smiled back before heading around to the driver's side.

"Smooth," I complimented once both doors were closed.

"Well I do know how to impress the ladies." He winked at me.

I rolled my eyes, but couldn't manage to wipe the smile off my face.

The rest of the ride was silent except for a few forced comments on the weather. It was okay, though. The café was only a few minutes away.

We arrived at the café and Chad proceeded to be like a gentlemen I had never seen in him before. While I got out of the car myself, he opened the door to get inside for me. And when I started to pull the ten dollar bill I hastily stuck in my back pocket last minute, he stopped me.

"I'll get it," he offered, pulling out his wallet. He quickly added, "It's not like I don't have the money."

"Thanks." I was seriously impressed. He was good.

We took our drinks outside to the patio. It was a small, square area with three wrought-iron tables for two. Small hedges enveloped it making it slightly private, though the street was just twenty feet away. It was the perfect place to get noticed and pretend you didn't notice you were being notice, if you get what I mean.

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see a man wearing a baseball cap and camera around his neck. The camera looked to big to belong to a tourist. It was definitely the paparazzi.

"There's a guy over there with a camera to my left," I whispered, keeping a smile on my face, "Start laughing at something I said."

"I know what to do!" he snapped, though he kept smiling just as I had.

"Then why aren't you laughing?"

His response was a booming laugh that sounded believable. I joined in, a real smile forming on my face as I heard the 'click! click!' of the a camera taking pictures.

Fooling the press was as easy as laughing. It was too simple.

Our fake laughing died down and I asked, "So how long do you think it will be until these pictures are on the internet?"

"An hour, give or take," he told me.

"And this will definitely work?"

He nodded, "As long as the people buy it."

I couldn't help but smile, probably looking like an idiot. I took a sip of my drink to cover it up.

"Hey, what kind of drink did you get?"

I was startled by his random change of subject. I swallowed then answered, "It's a French vanilla latte with a skim milk and a shot of caramel."

"Sounds good. Can I have a sip?"

I looked at him with shock, but pushed my cup towards him anyway.

He took a sip and his eyes let up, "That's actually not that bad." He gave the cup back.

"Can I try yours?"

Now he was the confused one, "It's just plain coffee."

"I know. I've never had it before," I explained. I was telling the truth. I was curious at how it would taste.

He handed over the cup and I took a sip. I quickly pulled the cup away and forced myself to swallow the hot liquid. I scrunched my face in disgust. It was too bitter without anything sweet to back it up.

He was smiling with amusement when I handed him his drink back.

"Didn't like it?"

I shook my head, "Too bitter."

"Just drink your girly coffee then. I'll drink the real stuff."

"Hey! You said you liked my drink!" I said, letting out a giggle.

"I never said I didn't like it. I just think it shows weakness. Real men drink coffee." He took a long swig as if to prove his point.

I burst out laughing, unable to control myself. That was probably the weirdest thing I had ever heard come out of his mouth. He started chuckling, too.

"You're so weird!" I teased.

"I'm not the one who was a rapping bumble bee on their show," he shot back.

"Touché."

We started laughing again.

The rest of the morning went pretty well. I had actually forgotten our main purpose for going out and started to enjoy myself.

Eventually, the coffee cups were empty and we had no excuse to stay any longer.

He drove me home and walked me to my door.

"Thanks Chad. I actually had fun."

"No problem. I did, too."

We stood there in silence. I didn't know if I should hug him, which would be awkward, or shake his hand which would be even more awkward. I settled on a smile and went inside.

* * * *

I was eating lunch a few hours later when my phone vibrated in my pocket. It was a text from Chad:

Chk the web, evry1 bought it J

I dropped the sandwich I was eating and powered up my laptop. Minutes later, I was surfing the web.

I was smiling uncontrollably when I got to a celebrity gossip website. Me and Chad were homepage news, I started to read the article:

Chad Dylan Cooper was spotted earlier this morning having coffee with "So Random!" cast member, Sonny Munroe. The two looked surprisingly comfortable with one another for a pair who had just been in a nasty fight the day before. A witness says they were talking and laughing like nothing. They were even sharing drinks. It seems as if this so called feud was all a misunderstanding.

I quickly texted Chad back:

Yay! J

I was breathing easy for the rest of the day.

* * * *

I was back on set the next day even though it was a Sunday. We had a new sketch to rehearse that didn't get rehearsed on Friday.

I was rummaging through the costume rack when Tawni burst into the room looking perkier than ever.

"Why didn't you tell me you were dating Chad Dylan Cooper?!" she practically shouted.

My jaw hit the floor.

"What?!" My voice was even louder then hers.

"I saw a headline about it on the cover of a magazine. I didn't believe it at first, so I bought it. But then I looked inside and read the article. The pictures made it pretty convincing. You guys are adorable!"

"Give me the magazine," I ordered. She did as told.

I flipped to the part Tawni was talking about and skimmed through was right. It _was_ pretty convincing. And I hadn't noticed before, but the pictures from yesterday did kind of make us look like a couple. What I wanted to know was how they managed to get pictures from just yesterday into a magazine published today. Though I had bigger problems to deal with right now.

"What's wrong? Tawni asked, noticing my frantic expression, "Did you not want to make it public yet?"

I groaned at her stupidity. "We're not even dating, Tawni!" I yelled. I didn't mean to sound so cross with her, but I was really angry.

"Oh. Well that's not good," is all she said.

"Ya think?"

I really hate Hollywood.

**A/N: First off all, if you got all the way to here, thank you for reading the whole thing. I hope you enjoyed it :D At the end of my paper, my teacher wrote me this long note, and in part of it she told me to get it published in some way. So I did! Reviews please?**


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